Oct 11, 2011

The Advocator Group Takes On The Hard Cases

You’re disabled, you’re not getting benefits, and you wonder if you’re entitled. But you’re also afraid of interacting with a federal bureaucracy, a paper intensive process, and giving one wrong answer that could disqualify you from benefits. You’re why The Advocator Group released Disability Answers, a free mobile app that tells disabled Americans whether they’ll qualify for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) or Medicare.

Try working through it. The big question is whether you have one of the 100 conditions on the compassionate allowances list. By the way, isn't that name, Advocator Group, lovely?

Update: The Washington Post has picked up on this press release. By the way, for anyone who can't figure it out, "Takes On The Hard Cases" is written sarcastically. The Advocator Group is only seeking cases that will be approved immediately with or without their help, the kind of case I don't take on because I don't want to rip off anyone, especially someone who is desperately ill.

8 comments:

The Advocator Group is one of those "non-attorney" groups that advertises to insurance companies that they obtain reimbursement to the insurance company for LTD payments if the SSA DIB claim is approved. They do this by having the claimant sign an authorization allowing them to debit their bank account! They also make the claimant sign an authorization allowing Advocator Group to turn over all their medical info to the insurance co. They are in Massachusetts, and Mass. legal ethics would not permit an attorney to represent two potentially competing interests like this. Therefore, the "non-attorney" group formed by a sustaining NOSSCR member attorney and run out of that attorney's office -- same address, even the same suite number. Wonder what the Mass. Board of Bar Overseers would have to say to this guy?

Taking compassionate allowances is like shooting fish in a barrel with a sawed-off shotgun; touting the fact that you're taking these cases is like trying to get on the cover of Fisherman magazine based on your great skill at slaughtering defenseless fish with a shotgun.

I received this comment by e-mail so I know that Mr. Gallagher posted it but it's not there. I'm re-posting it for him to make sure it gets posted.

Mr. Hall,

In the interest of transparency, I wanted to take the opportunity to clarify a couple points not only about our new smartphone app, but also about the work that we do at The Advocator Group.

The Disability Answers mobile application was designed to be first and foremost an educational resource for disabled workers who may be eligible for SSDI benefits and/or Medicare. In our experience, there are many disabled workers who are eligible for these benefits, but unaware that they would qualify. Additionally, many of these individuals lack an awareness of the fact that they can get help in filing their applications.

The app allows the user to determine his or her likelihood of approval for benefits by answering a series of simple questions. As you experienced when you downloaded and experimented with the app, after entering a few basic data points at Step 1, the user is asked to determine whether their condition appears on the list of Compassionate Allowance conditions (CAL), or alternatively, may select “I do not have a diagnosis included in this list.” This is a logical progression – as you know, if an individual has a CAL condition, many subsequent qualifying questions become unnecessary – the individual is categorically going to have a high likelihood of approval.

Alternatively, when a user selects “I do not have a diagnosis on this list,” they then access a series of additional questions necessary for the app to identify the specific nature of the individual’s disabling condition. Based on the responses to these questions, the app calculates a likelihood of SSDI approval, which is presented to the individual in an easy to understand format.

To address your concerns head on, The Advocator Group is not only seeking cases that will be approved immediately. The app is not designed to encourage individuals with CAL conditions to work with us, or to apply for SSDI, any more so than any other qualified individual. In fact the vast majority of our clients do not suffer from CAL conditions. However, failing to include this inquiry in our smartphone app would be ignoring a crucial step in determining one’s likelihood of approval for benefits.

I would encourage anyone with questions or concerns about our new smartphone app or about the work that we do at The Advocator Group to contact me at cgallagher@advocator.com, or alternatively, to continue this dialogue on Mr. Hall’s blog. We stand behind the work that we do and we are enthusiastic about our emerging communication methods with our current and future clients.